Heileen 3: Sea maidens
Apr. 5th, 2013 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrI've been deciding whether or not to try this game for ages, but it was on sale and "silly pirate f/f dating sim" sounded like just the thing to get me through a cold.
The Heileen series is about a young woman, Heileen, who sails to the New World from Liverpool with her friends and family in the first game, has to survive on a desert island in the second, and spends this third game on a pirate ship finding her friends, forming relationships and trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life. The way it works is you download the demo (Heileen 3: New Horizons), then pay to unlock the f/f or m/f romances (or both) I just paid for the f/f romances (sold as "Heileen 3: Sea Maidens"). I started on game 3 and wasn't too confused, and apparently it's the best of the series.
Overall I enjoyed it, but was bored or irritated for a lot of it. It's got a very conventional outlook: slavery is bad but colonialism is good, and "natives" are simplistic and often scary. It's very heteronormative, it's origins as a m/f dating sim are pretty obvious especially at the start when the main character keeps swooning over all the guys (especially Morgan, who she unambiguously crushes on all game regardless of who you romance), and since the romances are structured to allow you to switch to friendship at the last minute some felt a bit out of left field. Also some of the unavoidable "flirtation" from LIs felt like sexual harassment to me.
nb: If you are easily triggered by not-quite-incest don't read my summary and don't play the game!
But beyond all that the basic structure is frustrating: it's basically a dating sim and a raising sim meshed together, and the ending you get depends purely on which one you finish first: either you fall in love or you qualify for a profession. Both are compulsory but don't influence each other at all (though some actions affect both), and my hands are sore from having to click through all the job grinding. Also the sins and virtues based morality system (which only affects profession endings) was affected by the old fashioned values it grows from eg any expression of sexuality is "lust", standing up for yourself is "wrath" etc. It was kind of fun seeing how sinful I could get though :D
Still, the romances and other character arcs were sweet in their way (the hints I got to see of the m/f romances less so, three of the four guys are really sleazy and manipulative) and while the job grinding had NO EFFECT ON ANYTHING it did give me something simple to do while I was sick and had a few cute scenes amongst all the boring clicking.
The four f/f love interests in order of how much I liked them:
Juliet: grumpy violent French pirate queen of my heart, omg.. May not appeal to those who don't like hateshipping as much as me :D
Ebele: (remarkably pale and green eyed) ex slave from West Africa, became close friends with Heileen in the second game when they were trapped on a desert island together. Very sweet and a little quiet but also very intelligent and strong willed. She starts the game with a boyfriend who is also an ex slave, I thought this hurdle was dealt with moderately well in the romance (eg he isn't demonised or killed!) though there are Race Issues with the portrayal of both.
Maria: Heileen's best friend. Quicktempered and stubborn but sweet. Didn't do much for me, sadly.
Lora: the cheerfully debauched mistress of Heileen's uncle. I thought she was a bit sleazy but sweet until it became clear that she helped raise Heileen as a kid at which point my incest squick kicked in. And the vibe got EVEN MORE INCESTUOUS by the end ahhhhhh. Still, I guess some people like that sort of thing. Just...not me D: D: D:
Lora and Juliet are the two romances with most sexual charge, Heileen starts the game totally focussed on dudes then at about day 180 starts going "Wow, Juliet has amazing breasts, I wonder what she'd look like naked...WAIT WHAT AM I THINKING AHHHH"
And now, because I found it confusing for a while and to steal ideas for Copper Rose (if only in a "DON'T DO THIS" way), a more in depth discussion of the game mechanics. Some general plot spoilers but nothing specific about the endings, and personally I would have wanted to know all this going in.
The first 96 days are introduction as you gather your crew. I found this repetitive and dull.
Then you have 999 days to finish the game. I thought "I'm only ONE NINTH OF THE WAY THROUGH??" but that's just the time limit, on easy all my romances have finished within around 300 days even with some screwups and I finished a profession in 355 days.
The rest of the game is a mixture of level grinding and scenes with various love interests allowing you to build up their affection scores (and your sins/virtues), and afaict it keeps going like this until the game ends one way or another, though past about day 300 there doesn't seem to be any new dialogue outside the romances.
Romances and affection scores:
Once a LI hits 80% (I think) their romance kicks in, and you will pretty much only see scenes from their romance until it's done. Either you make the right choices and the game ends then and there with the two of you living happily ever after, or you screw up (I think if their affection isn't over 90% by the final romance scene) and their romance is permanently over. You then have a chance to start a different romance or work on a profession ending.
Affection scores are pretty easy to game: every time you hit a menu choice in a scene with a character you care about, save. If their score goes down pick a different choice until it goes up. Noone cares what you do when they can't see you or about Sins/Virtues etc, nor do they care about scenes that occur while you're training. Be nice to your chosen LI and hang out with them whenever you can and you should be fine. I think trying to balance two at once can screw you up.
If you're not planning on romancing someone their affection affects NOTHING, it can go to zero and they'll still be just as friendly. Also if you're focussed on a romance ending there is no downside to saying yes any time someone asks you out on an excursion, just make sure to keep your energy levels up while you're working.
Professions:
A profession ending requires you to be level 10 in an advanced skill and to be high enough in the associated sin or virtue. Sins and virtues go up and down depending on your dialogue choices. Raising a given sin lowers the associated virtue and vice versa (charity/greed, lust/chastity etc) if you accidentally screw up you can backtrack with the page up/mouse scroll up or save at menu choices to be sure. If your sin/virtue is high enough for the profession ending it will go darker in the "profession" tab in your status. Afaict, if you run out of dialogue (this happens at about day 300) before your sin/virtue is high enough you are screwed.
Each level of an advanced skill requires you to be high enough in two associated basic skills, and you can only level up advanced skills while you're at a colony. Once you have all the crew (about 96 days in) you can bring people along with you to raise (or lower!) your advanced skill learning speed, each advanced skill has one crew member who will help the most. There are three cute scenes to go with this (at about levels 1, 5, and 10), these have no effect on the romances but are still fun and I liked to try and match the profession with my LI.
I found it best to rest the moment my energy got below 30%, that way it increased my odds of hitting 100% energy which gives a bonus.
And now, the professions and how to get there. If you'd rather figure it out for yourself, stop reading now :)
Wisdom: Read Books
Cunning: Accountant
Strength: Swab the Deck
Dexterity: Lookout
Endurance: Navigation
Charisma: Kitchen Girl
Discipline: Keep a Logbook
Profession (best person to help train): Sin/Virtue + Advanced Skill: Primary basic skill + Secondary basic skill
Abbess (Black): Chastity + Faith/Praying: Wisdom + Discipline
Herbalist (Ebele): Temperance + Herbalism: Dexterity + Wisdom
Missionary (Elias): Charity + Medicine/Missionary: Discipline + Cunning
Woodcutter (Jack): Diligence + Woodcutting: Strength + Endurance
Farming (Robert): Patience + Farming: Endurance + Strength
Teacher (Marie): Kindness + teaching: Discipline + Charisma
Cabin Girl (John): Humility+ Repairing/Carpenter: Strength + Dexterity
Dancer (Lora): Lust + Dancing : Charisma+ Endurance
Cook (Marco): Gluttony + Cooking: Endurance + Dexterity
Merchant (Otto): Greed+Trading/Merchant : Cunning + Charisma
Noble (Sebastian): Sloth+Decorum/Diplomacy: Wisdom + Cunning
General (Jonathan): Wrath + Logic/Chess: Cunning+ Wisdom
Pirate (Juliet): Envy+Fencing : Dexterity + Strength
Captain (Morgan): Pride + Leadership/Public Speech: Charisma+ Discipline
The Heileen series is about a young woman, Heileen, who sails to the New World from Liverpool with her friends and family in the first game, has to survive on a desert island in the second, and spends this third game on a pirate ship finding her friends, forming relationships and trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life. The way it works is you download the demo (Heileen 3: New Horizons), then pay to unlock the f/f or m/f romances (or both) I just paid for the f/f romances (sold as "Heileen 3: Sea Maidens"). I started on game 3 and wasn't too confused, and apparently it's the best of the series.
Overall I enjoyed it, but was bored or irritated for a lot of it. It's got a very conventional outlook: slavery is bad but colonialism is good, and "natives" are simplistic and often scary. It's very heteronormative, it's origins as a m/f dating sim are pretty obvious especially at the start when the main character keeps swooning over all the guys (especially Morgan, who she unambiguously crushes on all game regardless of who you romance), and since the romances are structured to allow you to switch to friendship at the last minute some felt a bit out of left field. Also some of the unavoidable "flirtation" from LIs felt like sexual harassment to me.
nb: If you are easily triggered by not-quite-incest don't read my summary and don't play the game!
But beyond all that the basic structure is frustrating: it's basically a dating sim and a raising sim meshed together, and the ending you get depends purely on which one you finish first: either you fall in love or you qualify for a profession. Both are compulsory but don't influence each other at all (though some actions affect both), and my hands are sore from having to click through all the job grinding. Also the sins and virtues based morality system (which only affects profession endings) was affected by the old fashioned values it grows from eg any expression of sexuality is "lust", standing up for yourself is "wrath" etc. It was kind of fun seeing how sinful I could get though :D
Still, the romances and other character arcs were sweet in their way (the hints I got to see of the m/f romances less so, three of the four guys are really sleazy and manipulative) and while the job grinding had NO EFFECT ON ANYTHING it did give me something simple to do while I was sick and had a few cute scenes amongst all the boring clicking.
The four f/f love interests in order of how much I liked them:
Juliet: grumpy violent French pirate queen of my heart, omg.. May not appeal to those who don't like hateshipping as much as me :D
Ebele: (remarkably pale and green eyed) ex slave from West Africa, became close friends with Heileen in the second game when they were trapped on a desert island together. Very sweet and a little quiet but also very intelligent and strong willed. She starts the game with a boyfriend who is also an ex slave, I thought this hurdle was dealt with moderately well in the romance (eg he isn't demonised or killed!) though there are Race Issues with the portrayal of both.
Maria: Heileen's best friend. Quicktempered and stubborn but sweet. Didn't do much for me, sadly.
Lora: the cheerfully debauched mistress of Heileen's uncle. I thought she was a bit sleazy but sweet until it became clear that she helped raise Heileen as a kid at which point my incest squick kicked in. And the vibe got EVEN MORE INCESTUOUS by the end ahhhhhh. Still, I guess some people like that sort of thing. Just...not me D: D: D:
Lora and Juliet are the two romances with most sexual charge, Heileen starts the game totally focussed on dudes then at about day 180 starts going "Wow, Juliet has amazing breasts, I wonder what she'd look like naked...WAIT WHAT AM I THINKING AHHHH"
And now, because I found it confusing for a while and to steal ideas for Copper Rose (if only in a "DON'T DO THIS" way), a more in depth discussion of the game mechanics. Some general plot spoilers but nothing specific about the endings, and personally I would have wanted to know all this going in.
The first 96 days are introduction as you gather your crew. I found this repetitive and dull.
Then you have 999 days to finish the game. I thought "I'm only ONE NINTH OF THE WAY THROUGH??" but that's just the time limit, on easy all my romances have finished within around 300 days even with some screwups and I finished a profession in 355 days.
The rest of the game is a mixture of level grinding and scenes with various love interests allowing you to build up their affection scores (and your sins/virtues), and afaict it keeps going like this until the game ends one way or another, though past about day 300 there doesn't seem to be any new dialogue outside the romances.
Romances and affection scores:
Once a LI hits 80% (I think) their romance kicks in, and you will pretty much only see scenes from their romance until it's done. Either you make the right choices and the game ends then and there with the two of you living happily ever after, or you screw up (I think if their affection isn't over 90% by the final romance scene) and their romance is permanently over. You then have a chance to start a different romance or work on a profession ending.
Affection scores are pretty easy to game: every time you hit a menu choice in a scene with a character you care about, save. If their score goes down pick a different choice until it goes up. Noone cares what you do when they can't see you or about Sins/Virtues etc, nor do they care about scenes that occur while you're training. Be nice to your chosen LI and hang out with them whenever you can and you should be fine. I think trying to balance two at once can screw you up.
If you're not planning on romancing someone their affection affects NOTHING, it can go to zero and they'll still be just as friendly. Also if you're focussed on a romance ending there is no downside to saying yes any time someone asks you out on an excursion, just make sure to keep your energy levels up while you're working.
Professions:
A profession ending requires you to be level 10 in an advanced skill and to be high enough in the associated sin or virtue. Sins and virtues go up and down depending on your dialogue choices. Raising a given sin lowers the associated virtue and vice versa (charity/greed, lust/chastity etc) if you accidentally screw up you can backtrack with the page up/mouse scroll up or save at menu choices to be sure. If your sin/virtue is high enough for the profession ending it will go darker in the "profession" tab in your status. Afaict, if you run out of dialogue (this happens at about day 300) before your sin/virtue is high enough you are screwed.
Each level of an advanced skill requires you to be high enough in two associated basic skills, and you can only level up advanced skills while you're at a colony. Once you have all the crew (about 96 days in) you can bring people along with you to raise (or lower!) your advanced skill learning speed, each advanced skill has one crew member who will help the most. There are three cute scenes to go with this (at about levels 1, 5, and 10), these have no effect on the romances but are still fun and I liked to try and match the profession with my LI.
I found it best to rest the moment my energy got below 30%, that way it increased my odds of hitting 100% energy which gives a bonus.
And now, the professions and how to get there. If you'd rather figure it out for yourself, stop reading now :)
Wisdom: Read Books
Cunning: Accountant
Strength: Swab the Deck
Dexterity: Lookout
Endurance: Navigation
Charisma: Kitchen Girl
Discipline: Keep a Logbook
Profession (best person to help train): Sin/Virtue + Advanced Skill: Primary basic skill + Secondary basic skill
Abbess (Black): Chastity + Faith/Praying: Wisdom + Discipline
Herbalist (Ebele): Temperance + Herbalism: Dexterity + Wisdom
Missionary (Elias): Charity + Medicine/Missionary: Discipline + Cunning
Woodcutter (Jack): Diligence + Woodcutting: Strength + Endurance
Farming (Robert): Patience + Farming: Endurance + Strength
Teacher (Marie): Kindness + teaching: Discipline + Charisma
Cabin Girl (John): Humility+ Repairing/Carpenter: Strength + Dexterity
Dancer (Lora): Lust + Dancing : Charisma+ Endurance
Cook (Marco): Gluttony + Cooking: Endurance + Dexterity
Merchant (Otto): Greed+Trading/Merchant : Cunning + Charisma
Noble (Sebastian): Sloth+Decorum/Diplomacy: Wisdom + Cunning
General (Jonathan): Wrath + Logic/Chess: Cunning+ Wisdom
Pirate (Juliet): Envy+Fencing : Dexterity + Strength
Captain (Morgan): Pride + Leadership/Public Speech: Charisma+ Discipline
no subject
Date: 2013-04-05 05:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-08 07:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-13 11:41 pm (UTC)Good review btw, I'm kinda embarrassed to admit they despite all the flaws and how much most of the male characters annoyed me, and the weird way Heileen was written at points, the insurances among other things, I find my self enjoying the games a lot. Must've been Juliet and the girls, bless.
(Ah, I kinda hope they make a v.2 where everything is less awkward... I'd love to be able to re play this without having to roll my eyes every 3 min)
no subject
Date: 2014-06-14 01:07 pm (UTC)I have enjoyed some pretty dire things thanks to the right girl, no judgement here :)
I know one of the writers of the f/f version of Nicole and it's looking promising! No sexy pirates though :(